Discussing the Damsel Scrappy business
So you have a character who's always getting in trouble and needs rescuing, to the point where the audience goes "JUST LET IT DIE ALREADY AND GO BACK TO YOUR KICKASS ADVENTURES!!". And maybe the character really IS obnoxious or annoying, and hatred of them is understandable.
But once again, I go back to the fan fallacy of "the canon characters MUST share my feelings!", aka foisting your values and opinions onto a different type of canon. Fan thinks Miaka is stupid and should die for always causing trouble? Obviously the Suzaku Seishi feel the same way. The player doesn't want to save Peach? Mario doesn't wanna save her either, obviously. The reader hates Orihime? Then Ichigo shouldn't have to go on his little 'save the princess' mission, he should just make out with Rukia while the stupid damsel suffers! And so forth.
(If the canon characters DO cop an attitude of "aww, we gotta save him/her again", that's a whole other story. But they usually don't.)
TVTropes wisely lists Damsel Scrappy as an audience reaction trope rather than a valid character trope, but fans still seem to treat it as the latter.
Thoughts?
But once again, I go back to the fan fallacy of "the canon characters MUST share my feelings!", aka foisting your values and opinions onto a different type of canon. Fan thinks Miaka is stupid and should die for always causing trouble? Obviously the Suzaku Seishi feel the same way. The player doesn't want to save Peach? Mario doesn't wanna save her either, obviously. The reader hates Orihime? Then Ichigo shouldn't have to go on his little 'save the princess' mission, he should just make out with Rukia while the stupid damsel suffers! And so forth.
(If the canon characters DO cop an attitude of "aww, we gotta save him/her again", that's a whole other story. But they usually don't.)
TVTropes wisely lists Damsel Scrappy as an audience reaction trope rather than a valid character trope, but fans still seem to treat it as the latter.
Thoughts?